Corundum

specimen number:
9506201

location:
Ganesh, Hunza Valley, Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

description:

A beautiful purplish red lustrous double terminated crystal of ruby 3.7 cm in length set nicely on a white calcite matrix. The quality is really high, this is in great condition. Brightly fluorescent.

The Ganesh ruby occurrence, situated near the historic village of Ganish in the Hunza Valley of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, is part of a high-altitude mineral district. While the ancient settlement itself dates back roughly 1,000 years along the Silk Road, formal mineral exploration and small-scale state-backed mining operations in the area primarily began in the early to mid-1970s through the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (operating roughly from 1972 to 1979) and later the Gemstone Corporation of Pakistan. Geologically, the deposit is set within the Karakoram Metamorphic Belt, where intense tectonic pressures from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates transformed regional strata. The ruby mineralization is hosted within thick, highly deformed calc-silicate and recrystallized marble sequences of the Baltit Group, where high-temperature metamorphism facilitated the crystallization of gem-quality corundum alongside accessory minerals like phlogopite, margarite, and pyrite. Modern extraction remains sporadic and artisanal, operating seasonally along steep marble outcrops.

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